Delhi gang rape: Death to 4 for ‘dastardly diabolical, brutal’ crime

The court said capital punishment was being given for Nirbhaya’s murder because the incident had “shocked the collective conscience of society. | Special

| TNN | Updated: Sep 14, 2013, 03:04 IST

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Delhi gang-rape case: All four...

NEW DELHI: The proceedings barely lasted five minutes. At 2.30pm on Friday, additional sessions judge Yogesh Khanna stepped on the dais and said, “Death to all”, thus sealing the fate of Mukesh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Thakur — the four guilty of the vicious Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case which had left the country in horror-struck convulsion. Amid heavy police deployment and with hundreds of people gathered outside, the fast-track court said capital punishment was being given for Nirbhaya’s murder because the incident had “shocked the collective conscience of society and calls for withdrawal of the protective arm of the community around the convicts”.

The judge said the “ghastly act of the convicts definitely puts this case in the bracket of rarest of rare.” The death sentence, however, needs to be confirmed by Delhi high court.

Such were the strong emotions of retribution in this case that people shouted in joy and clapped when lawyers came out of the courtroom saying, “Sabko faansi hui (All have got death)”. Some even broke into an impromptu dance.

The pronouncement left Akshay, Pawan and Mukesh stunned while Vinay broke down in the court. Nirbhaya’s family, which was also present when the sentence was delivered, looked relieved by the decision and thanked everyone present.

Weighing the factors for and against the convicts in deciding the punishment, the court said the “aggravating circumstances” were that the offence was committed in an “extremely brutal, grotesque, diabolical, revolting and dastardly manner” so as to arouse intense and extreme indignation of society. He said the guilty showed exceptional depravity and extreme brutality in inflicting misery upon the girl, leading to grave impact on social order.

“These are times when gruesome crimes against women have become rampant and courts cannot turn a blind eye to the need to send a strong deterrent message to the perpetrators of such crimes,” said judge Khanna, reading out from his sentencing order.

“The gravity of the incident depicts hair-raising, beastly and unparalleled behaviour. The subjecting of the victim to inhuman acts of torture before her death had not only shocked the collective conscience but calls for the withdrawal of the protective arm of the community around the convicts… Accordingly, the convicts be hanged by the neck till they are dead,” the judge added.

Besides the death sentence for murder of 23-year-old Nirbhaya, the court awarded life sentence for gang rape and criminal conspiracy. Imposing a fine of Rs 55,000 each on all four convicts, the court also sentenced them to varying jail terms for attempt to murder, committing unnatural sex, dacoity etc.

Recommending that the family of the victim be adequately compensated, the judge directed that a copy of his order be sent to the secretary, Delhi Legal Service Authority, for deciding the quantum of compensation to be awarded.

On the night of December 16 last year, six persons — Ram Singh, Vinay, Akshay, Pawan, Mukesh and a juvenile — had gang raped the paramedic student in a moving bus in South Delhi after luring her and her 28-year-old male friend, who was also assaulted, on board the vehicle, which was later found to be plying illegally on the capital's roads.

The victim’s friend, a software engineer, suffered fractures in his limbs. The girl succumbed to her injuries on December 29, 2012 at a Singapore hospital.

In its 20-page order, the court said that the criminal justice system needed to instill faith in women by adopting a zero-tolerance policy. “The increasing trend of crimes against women can be arrested only once society realizes that there will be no tolerance for any form of deviance against women and more so in extreme cases of brutality such as the present one,” it said.

Rejecting the plea of the convicts seeking a chance for reformation on the grounds of their young age, poverty, clean antecedents and other mitigating circumstances, the court said, “The crime of such nature against a helpless woman, per se, requires exemplary punishment…the aggravating circumstances outweigh the mitigating circumstances in the case.”

“The facts show that the entire intestine of the victim was perforated, splayed and cut open due to repeated insertion of rods and hands. The convicts, in the most barbaric manner, pulled out her internal organs with their bare hands as well as by the rods and caused her irreparable injuries, thus exhibiting extreme mental perversion not worthy of human condonation,” the judge said.

The court said that the four men are not convicted only on account of conspiracy but also for their “overt” acts. Relying on the various Supreme Court’s judgments like the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack accused Ajmal Kasab, the court said that for a case to fall under the “rarest of rare” category, perception of the society towards the offence was important. “The court has to look into factors like society's abhorrence, extreme indignation and antipathy to certain types of cases.”

The “severity” of the injuries and the “unprovoked” suffering inflicted upon the “defenceless” victim were also relied upon by the court while handing down the capital punishment.

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